Drivers of fish diversity and turnover across multiple spatial scales: Implications for conservation in the Western Ghats, India Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Thesis Submitted By Vidyadhar Atkore Reg. No: 110900028 Thesis Submitted to Manipal University Manipal, 576104 Research carried out at The Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) Bangalore Declaration by the candidate I, Vidyadhar Atkore hereby declare that the thesis entitled “Drivers of fish diversity and turnover across multiple spatial scales: Implications for conservation in the Western Ghats, India” has been compiled by me under the supervision of Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. The thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship, or its equivalent to any other University or Institution. (Vidyadhar Atkore) Place: Bangalore Date: 30th November, 2017 Certificate This is to certify that the thesis entitled “Drivers of fish diversity and turnover across multiple spatial scales: Implications for conservation in the Western Ghats, India” submitted by Mr. Vidyadhar Atkore, for the award of Doctor of Philosophy for, Manipal University, Manipal, is a record of the research work carried out by him during the period of his study in this university under my guidance and supervision and the thesis has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or other similar titles. Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy Place: Bangalore Date: 30th November, 2017 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to several institutions and individuals who have helped me in finishing my doctoral research work. Bangalore has been a perfect place to pursue my PhD. I was really blessed to learn and work with some of the best scientist and teachers in the world especially Drs. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Sharad Lele, Nitin Rai, Suhel Quader, Kavita Isvaran, Kartik Shanker, T. Kannan, Harini Nagendra, Bijoy Thomas, Shrinivas Badiger, Seema Puroshottam, R. Ganesan, Soubadra Devi, Siddhartha Krishnan, Siddappa Setty, Ankila Hiremath, T. Ganesh, Veena Srinivasan, Ulka Kelkar, Abi Tamim Vanak, Maria Thaker and Anindya Sinha. Special thanks to several friends for their constant support and encouragement. The list is very long but I thank Obaiah, Prashant, Rakesh, Jayalakshmi, Vindhya, Drs. Arundhati Das, Susan Varghese, Paramesha Mallegowda, Jagadish M.R., Milind Buyan, Vivek Ramachandran, Chetan H.C. Office and administrative staff of ATREE have been very extremely supportive. My sincere thanks goes to Gopi, (late) Sindhu, Vartika, Ramesh, Saji, Laxminarayan, Raghu, Madhavi, Bhogaiah, Usha, Smita, Goutham and Indrani. First and foremost I express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, for readily agreeing and accepting me as his PhD student. He has been my role model and ideal scientist to work with. His illustrative academic career has always and continues to inspire me. He has immeasurably helped me throughout all the crucial stages of my research. I sincerely thank him for his able guidance and patience and giving me full freedom to work on my ideas and in my capacity. I had very rewarding and rich learning experience with him. Dr. Kartik Shanker, my Doctoral Advisory Committee (DAC) member and informal co-supervisor has fostered my interest in community ecology and biogeography. He has been instrumental in shaping my research question and provided necessary lab space in CES, IISc. Dr. Shrinivas Badiger another DAC member has helped me in finalizing and securing funding for one of the field site. I was benefited from his inputs on the study design and several useful comments on my synopsis and research articles. He and Dr. Jagdish guided me to present part of my research work at 4th Bio i Asia Seminar held at Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing – my first ever visit to any foreign country! Dr. Ajithkumar from Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore (DAC member) has always been another source of inspiration. He has been very motivating and supportive throughout and provided several useful comments on my work. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to former ATREE Directors, Dr. Gladwin Joseph and Dr. Ganesan Balachander for both academic and financial support at crucial stages of my PhD. I am also indebted to Drs. Nitin Rai, Aravind Madhystha, Siddhartha Krishnan and Milind Buyan (Academic coordinators) and Ms. Madhvi Latha for all the academic support they have given during my PhD. I would like to thank Drs. G. Ravikant and Priyanka Jamwal for providing lab space for conducting water quality analysis. I also thank Manipal University for all the necessary Academic support. Both the examiners of my thesis are gratefully acknowledged. I was immensely benefited from their several positive and constructive comments. Dr. M. Arunachalam was very kind enough to share literature on fish ecology from India. Dr. J.A. Johnson from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun gave me few important tips on field work - for instance, sketching a sampled stretch and noting down behavior of fish species. Dr. Anuradha Bhat has guided me on choosing fish sampling techniques and involved in very useful discussion on several occasions. Drs. Ranjit Daniels, C. P. Shaji, Markus Knight, Rema Devi madam and Rajeev Raghavan have helped me in identifying fishes. I was fortunate to meet Dr. K.C. Jayaram at his house in Chennai who not only encouraged me but also advised me to explore difficult terrain. I would not have pursued my research without unconditional support and love from my friends. Foremost I would like to thank Dr. Rasheed Raza, Dr. Raman Kumar for encouraging me to pursue my dream. My lifelong friends, Hari, Rohit, Madhura, Anirban, Chandrima, Tamma, Amit, Abhishek, Mousumi, Joy, Karpa, Rishi, Barkha, Urbashi, Aniruddha, Radhika, Tamo, Navendu, Sneha, Divya, Nibedita, Nilambari, Ashok, Vijay, Varun, and Sandeep have been real source of inspiration due to their outstanding research. ii Hari, Navendu, Sandeep, Tamma & Madhura have strengthened my chapters and manuscripts at different stages. I am very grateful to Sandeep Pulla, Krishnapriya Tamma, and Geetha Ramaswami for solving my statistical doubts. Several friends from abroad who helped me procuring equipment’s, and books especially I thank Dr. Sandeep Sharma, Dr. Harshad Kulkarni, Allwin Jesudasan, Raju dada & Smita Deshpande, David Manski and (late) Archana Bali. I would also like to express my gratitude to Nachiket Kelkar for inviting me to co- conduct a workshop on Freshwater Biodiversity at the Student Conference on Conservation Science at Bangalore for 2013-2014 as well as requesting me to teach M. Sc. (Wildlife Biology and Conservation) of CWS-NCBS, Bangalore. I feel equally honored to seek his intellectual help in academics especially in the analysis and writing stage and being my collaborator. He has been always ready to teach and correct me on numerous occasions. I remain indebted to him for his kind help. Equally I am thankful to Dr. Mauricio Cetra from Brazil, Dr. Jani Heino from Finland, Dr. Maria Dornelas from UK, Dr. Sebastein Brosse and Dr. Pablo Tedesco from France for providing statistical advice and showing keen interest in my research. Dr. Madhura Nipahdkar has taught me all the necessary techniques of GIS and offered her help whenever I needed. She has always believed in my abilities and constantly encouraged me to reach top level despite all hurdles. Sheethal V. R. has helped me in data organization. Susan for all the cheerful time and laughter in the lab. Zuhail, Vindhya and Praveen helped in the water analysis. Several volunteers on various occasion visited me in the field and helped me in data collection. These includes Ramprasad, Neethi, Ramya, Nisarg, Suman and Anoop. Several other friends including Ovee, Venkat, Vikram, Manish, Shivani, Kadambari, Rahul, Sandeep, Neeta, Shivona, and Tarun have taken part in discussion on several occasions and helped me at different stages. Ajay, Sarvanan and Yogisha for accommodating me in the field stations (Heggarne in Sirsi and Emerald in Nilgiri) during my thesis writing. I would also like to express my thanks to Gubbi Labs, Bangalore for requesting me to assess fish diversity in Sakleshpur taluk of Hassan district. I enjoyed working with Drs. H.S. Sudhira, K.V. Gururaja and their colleagues. I thank the Forest Departments of Karnataka and Goa states for granting me research iii permission to conduct my field study in one of the most beautiful landscape/s of the Western Ghats. I would like to thank Mr. Netalkar and Dr. Ramesh Kumar (DCF’s of Kudremukh Forest Division), Mr. T. L. Prahlad and Srikanth Kadolkar (RFO, of Kudremukh and Kerekatte wildlife range), and all the administrative staff especially, Mr. Jaynarayanan, Mr. Hariprasad of Kudremukh Divisional Forest, Karkala for their valuable support during the fieldwork. The frontline staff at Kudremukh was always ready to help me in providing the logistical support, I sincerely express my gratitude to Mr. Chandre gowda, Mr. Laxman ji, Seshappa for being my field companions and teaching me Kannada throughout my fieldwork without them I would not have explored and sample streams from the very remote and interior parts of Kudremukh NP. I would also like to thank Nagraj ji, Ramesh ji, Satish, Raghavendra, Manjunath, Umesh, Pramod, and Sandeep for helping me during different stages of my fieldwork. Kudremukh Iron Ore Limited (KICOL) at Kudremukh made my stay comfortable in Sahyadri guest house initially and lending me a beautiful house in Company quarters in Kudremukh town. All the administrative staff of the KICOL Company was very down to earth. I sincerely thank Manager, Mr. Ravindra (Surveyor, KIOCL Co. Ltd) and many resident doctors who showed a great interest in my research. I enjoyed talking and sharing my field experiences with Principal, teacher and students of the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kudremukh. Amma who run a small tea stall called “The Hotel Kudremukh” who always served me fresh & hot food.